News

Actions

Cats, kittens take over Cleveland neighborhood

Posted at 5:15 PM, Sep 20, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-20 17:52:24-04

Cats, everywhere! 

You can't drive down Brighton Avenue in Cleveland and not see or smell cats. 

"Our street has an infestation of cats," Brenda Wirth said. 

"The smell of urine is probably the worst, Corrigan said. 

"They have kittens. Those kittens get bigger. And they stay on the street," Betty Kerr said. 

People who live on Brighton told NewsChannel 5 they're fed up with them and what they're doing to the neighborhood. 

"They get in the way when people are driving. At night they are in the backyard fighting," Wirth said. 

Several people told NewsChannel 5 they've called Animal Control, just to find out they won't pick them up cats, only dogs.

"They haven't given us a really realistic answer," Jane Schreibeis said. 

So NewsChannel 5 looked into it. 

According to a spokesman for the city of Cleveland, the APL is the only place people can turn. 

Cleveland funds an APL "Trap, Neuter, Return" sterilization program, but residents have to trap the cats themselves and bring them in. Not the answer many living on Brighton Avenue we looking for.

"We all work and everything - who has time for that?" Jane Schreibeis said. 

But the president of Cleveland's APL said the the city doesn't have the capacity for cat control, and if picking them up were an option, it would likely mean they'd be put to sleep.

She said the sterilization program is the best option for the people who live in neighborhoods where feral or stray cats are common.